Different sorting maps across X positions of my screen?

oxyscythe

Hello!

So this is going to be tricky to explain in just text, if I end up not making any sense I'll post a picture.

Basically what I am wondering is whether you can have different sorting maps across different "X areas" of your screen so that depth is not universal across the X axis of your whole screen.

Example (to try and make this clearer): I have a very wide screen (let's say 6000 pixels wide), which is very "deep" to the left but as you walk to the right objects are "closer" to the camera. So I'd want to apply three sorting maps one to apply to pixels 1-2900 on the left and keep the depth there more or less the same and I'd need another one between 2900 and 3100 say which would be used to dramatically increase the scale of the character and make him look like he's moving towards the camera even though he's mostly moving just on the X, then a 3rd sorting map from 3100 to 6000 for the area that's really close to the camera on the far right.

a) Does this make any kind of sense?

b) Is this possible already?

c) If not would it be something worth adding?

Thanks!

ChrisIceBox

I understand the concept, but not the specifics of your own use.  How many sprites would be affected in the scene?  If you're only dealing with the player, it might be worth using the Engine: Change scene setting Action - you can use that to change the active Sorting Map in-game.

oxyscythe

In this case it would just be the player as any NPCs are fairly static in this scene (completely static actually).

The change scene setting action definitely sounds like it could do the trick (I just wonder whether there might be an abrupt pop when the change happens). I'll give it a try.

While I am at it, is there a clever workflow for dealing with the scale of NPCs and how it's affected by the sorting map? What I mean is, I'll scale an NPC according to how they look right in the scene view, then run the game and their scale will change (because now it's affected by the sorting map). So you just have to kind of guess when you're scaling them when the game is not running.

I guess you can make them be completely unaffected by the sorting map if they're not going to move around anyway...

ChrisIceBox

If the NPCs are static, I'd recommend leaving them off the Sorting Map purely for the performance boost, if nothing else.

You can also use the Character: Change rendering to lock a sprite's scale (or order layer), independent of their Sorting Map.  This is useful for floating effects, where a Character might move but you don't want their scaling or render order to change as they do so.

oxyscythe

Cool, good to know, thanks!